Blue Angels’ Capt. Jeff Kuss Final Flight West

Blue Angels’ Capt. Jeff Kuss Final Flight WestVideo Credit: S. Szoke

Blue Angels’ Fat Albert to fly pilot’s body home

A single Blue Angel jet and the team’s C-130 Fat Albert transport plane will fly over Pensacola, Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key in Florida on Tuesday as the team transports the body of Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss to Pensacola Naval Air Station, the team announced Tuesday.

In a released statement, the team said the flyover will honor the 32-year-old pilot who died Thursday when his jet crashed at an airshow in Smyrna, Tennessee.

The flyover is scheduled for around 5:45 p.m.

“Blue Angels Lead Solo Ryan Chamberlain will lead Fat Albert in a flyover of Palofox Street in downtown Pensacola, from north to south, then over Pensacola Beach, from east to west, and lastly, over Perdido Key before landing at Forest Sherman Field, home of the Blue Angels,” the release said.

The team said a memorial ceremony for Kuss, a married father of two young children, will take place Thursday at the chapel on Pensacola Naval Air Station.

Kuss’ body was sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware after the crash. The base is the military’s center for mortuary affairs.

– Melissa Nelson Gabriel, Pensacola News Journal